If anyone knows of an #English private #Invidious instance they can share with me I would appreciate it. For some reason my employer has started blocking every public invidious instance, even though #YouTube remains unblocked.
βA man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.β -- The Children of Hurin
βIf more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.β
βI wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.β -- The Fellowship of the Ring
βA single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.β
"Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.β -- The Fellowship of the Ring
βWhat do you fear, lady?" [Aragorn] asked. "A cage," [Γowyn] said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.β -- Return of the King
βFantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!β
βBut I have been too deeply hurt, Sam. I tried to save the Shire, and it has been saved, but not for me. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.β -- The Return of the King
Interesting fact of the day: Webster's Dictionary in 1828 defined gender in much the same way as modern liberals define it, that being, ones expression of pronouns and does not strictly adhere to any sense of sex. In fact the dictionary definition at the time goes into some detail on that point.
So strictly speaking assigning ones gender based on preferred pronouns or expression of femininity/masculinity is in fact the traditional and historic usage of the word.
Here is a word-for-word copy of the text of the definition for gender in Webster's 1828 dictionary:
In grammar, a difference in words to express distinction of sex; usually a difference of termination in nouns, adjectives and participles, to express the distinction of male and female. But although this was the original design of different terminations, yet in the progress of language, other words having no relation to one sex or the other, came to have genders assigned them by custom. Words expressing males are said to be of the masculine gender; those expressing females, of the feminine gender; and in some languages, words expressing things having no sex, are of the neuter or neither gender
Interesting fact of the day: Webster's Dictionary in 1828 defined gender in much the same way as modern liberals define it, that being, ones expression of pronouns and does not strictly adhere to any sense of sex. In fact the dictionary definition at the time goes into some detail on that point.
So strictly speaking assigning ones gender based on preferred pronouns or expression of femininity/masculinity is in fact the traditional and historic usage of the word.
Here is a word-for-word copy of the text of the definition for gender in Webster's 1828 dictionary:
In grammar, a difference in words to express distinction of sex; usually a difference of termination in nouns, adjectives and participles, to express the distinction of male and female. But although this was the original design of different terminations, yet in the progress of language, other words having no relation to one sex or the other, came to have genders assigned them by custom. Words expressing males are said to be of the masculine gender; those expressing females, of the feminine gender; and in some languages, words expressing things having no sex, are of the neuter or neither gender
The following is a list of auto-antonyms, words which have two or more definitions where each is the opposite of the other, yet thanks to the beauty of language these words are rarely confusing to most of us:
βAppropriateβ can mean βto give (money or assets) toβ or βto delegate to,β as well as βto take something (for oneβs own use).β
"Bound" can mean "tied into immobility" or "leaping, jumping.β
"Cite" can mean "to recognize a good deed or performance" (cite for bravery) or "to require a court appearance" (often not a good thing, such as citing for DUI).
"Chuffed" can mean "pleased" or "displeased".
"Cleave" can mean "to cling" or "to split apart".
"Clip" can mean "attach" or "cut off"."
"Conclude" can mean "to start" (a contract) or "to end".
"Demiurge" can refer either to God as the creator or to the devil, depending on philosophical context.
"Drop" can mean to delete or eliminate (e.g., to drop a song from a playlist), but it is also slang for releasing an artistic creation into the world (e.g., to drop a new song on a music streaming service). So, the sentence "Her latest song was dropped" has two opposing meanings.
"Down" can mean unhappy ("I'm feeling down") or happy ("I'm down with that").
"Downhill" can mean things are getting worse, or getting easier.
"Draw" the curtains can mean either to open them or to close them.
"Dust" can mean to remove dust (cleaning a house) or to add dust (e.g. to dust a cake with powdered sugar).
"Egregious" can mean "outstandingly bad". Was originally used to mean
"remarkably good". The word's roots mean simply "standing out from the rest of the group", a concept that can apply either "in a good way" or "in a bad way".
"Execute" can mean either "to begin" (a plan or an action), or "to terminate" (a person).
"Factoid" can refer either to a genuinely true but insignificant statement, or (less often) to a false statement presented as true.
"Fast" as an adjective or adverb can mean "without moving; fixed in place", as in "holding fast" (also as in "steadfast"), or it can mean "moving quickly".
"Hew" can mean "to chop" or (in North America) "to adhere".
"Impregnable" can mean "invulnerable" and also vulnerable (to impregnation).
"Inflammable" technically means "capable of burning" ("in-" functioning as an intensifier) but is commonly misunderstood to mean "unburnable".
"Let" can mean "allow" or "prevent" (A British Passport contains a request that the bearer be allowed to "pass without let or hindrance".)
"Left" can mean "remain" or "leave" ("He left the room" or "He was the last one left in the room")
"Limit" can be inclusive or exclusive. For example, a request to "limit the damage to the clock tower" can mean to protect the clock tower from damage or to protect everything else but the clock tower from damage.
"Nonplussed" can mean "baffled" or "perplexed", but in North America can also be taken mean "not disconcerted" or "unperturbed" (a disputed usage)
"Off" can mean "activated" / "beginning to make a noise" (e.g. "The alarm went off") or "deactivated" / "ceasing operation" (e.g. "The alarm turned off by itself").
"Overlook" can mean to miss seeing something, or a place to see something from above. "Oversight" can mean "accidental omission or error", or "close scrutiny and control".
"Peruse" can mean either to read or go over attentively or read in a casual or cursory manner (e.g. peruse the collection).
"Ravel" can mean either to separate (e.g. threads in cloth) or entangle.
"Refrain" can mean either non-action or the repetition of an action (e.g. in musical notation).
"Restive" can mean "having difficulty staying still" ("restless") or "reluctant to move", though the latter is not a widely accepted meaning.
"Sanction" can mean "approve" or "penalize".
"Scan" can mean "scrutinize" or "skim".
"Strike" can mean to act decisively, or to refuse to act. Also, it can mean to hit, or to miss (as in baseball). In addition, it can mean to create ("strike a deal") or eliminate ("strike that line from the record").
"Table" can mean to discuss a topic at a meeting, or to postpone discussion of a topic.
"Weather" can mean withstand something (i.e. to weather the storm) but also to wear down or age.
Mobilizon is an alternative to Facebook groups and events. After a successful crowdfunding, it is time we gave you a taste of this software and updated you
Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage: Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage. If I have freedom in my love, And in my soul am free, Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty.
Anyone out there want me to write a personalized letter and send it to them for s snail mail penpal, let me know. If i get a flood of requests ill pick just one or two.
Finished writing my second penpal letter to a new person in France. I think I already see my handwriting improving through this exercise I think I'll keep you to it. Also still digging this deep black ink. My monogram has improved too!
It just dawned on me how similar #English phrasal verbs are to the entire #Russian verb system except that "phrasal" verbs in Russian aren't written as two-separate words, despite the recurring prefixes and suffixes that occur in them.
Small #linguistics question: does "what day are we?" sound natural to you? I'm pretty sure it's a bit of #Montreal#English, calqued from #French ("quel jour sommes-nous?"), but I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe everyone says that?